The long-range goal of the SCORE Program at Meharry Medical College is to assist in improving the competitive status of the school's research enterprise relative to other health science centers in the United States. The program seeks to create a research environment wherein faculty will improve their research skills and capabilities to efficiently conduct high quality research, to disseminate their research through peer-reviewed publications and presentations at national meetings, and to compete with greater success for independent extramural research funds. Finally, the equipment enhancements proposed in this SCORE supplemental application will assist the institution in its mission to conduct basic, clinical and applied research with special emphasis on diseases and conditions that disproportionately affect ethnic minority populations. The specific aims of the current program remain unchanged: 1) To increase the number of peer reviewed publications by MBRS investigators from 1.1 to 2.0 papers per year by the end of year-30; 2) To maintain the level of faculty presentations at national meetings to above 1 per year; and 3) To increase the acquisition of RO1 type grants from 10% to 20% of the SCORE investigators by year-31. This supplemental application, Expansion of Molecular Biology Core Facility, seeks funds to add an Affymetrix GeneChip Instrument system and an ABI PRISM 3100 Genetic Analyzer to the existing Molecular Biology Core Facility. The enhanced facility will better serve faculty and student investigators within and beyond the MBRS community at Meharry. It is anticipated that this equipment will be immediately utilized in ongoing research to boost productivity and elevate the level of innovation applied to existing biomedical questions being posed at Meharry Medical College